The Idol of Politics

National Assembly, Abuja

If you grew up in Africa, the word ‘idol’ immediately conjures up images of ancestors offering food items or performing rituals to some sculpted artifact or a natural feature (rocks, rivers, or trees). And your reaction would probably go like this: “Our ignorant ancestors were uneducated; that was why they could hold to such silly beliefs. We, their descendants, know better than to kneel before such lifeless and unresponsive gods.”

Such a view would be sorely mistaken. Idols are way more than we think.

According to Brian Walsh and Richard Middleton in The Transforming Vision, idols are good, created things which we have absolutized and religiously pursued to give us fulfillment. They are aspects of God’s world, but we put them in God’s place to provide what only God can give. So many things have been thus misused, including money, sex, fame, and even reason.

Here…